The Reluctant Admiral design team have just released RA 4.0 for any player who is interested. My personal thanks go to JWE and the Dabes Team for their hard work and pleasant help in making RA conform to Da Babes and allowing us to use the AB's splendid Extended Map and Stacking Units. Agreeing to host us on the Babes site makes the experience even better. THANK YOU BABES Team!

This version of RA brings the final changes to the Mod as we postulate what Adm Yamamoto might have done to the IJN Land-Based units. Here is the Scenario Description:

The Reluctant Admiral is a Japanese 'what if' scenario based upon a greater contribution by Adm. Yamamoto Isoroku. The premise of the Mod is that Yamamoto exerted a much greater influence first on the Japan Naval Aircraft Industry, then as Deputy Navy Minister, and finally as Navy Minister itself. Yamamoto chooses, at great risk to his life, to forego command of the Combined Fleet and dedicate himself to preparing Japan for a war he didn't want.

He adds two new slipways for Fleet construction to facilitate a different, final pre-war expansion of the Kaigun. New and expanded Naval Yards, Heavy Industry, and Armaments are added at tremendous cost for the Japanese economy as the Admiral attempts to prepare Japan for a possibly long war.

In so choosing to do this Yamamoto then changes the 4th Circle Building plan replacing the 3rd and 4th Yamato-Class Battleships with three improved Shokaku-Class CVs and a pair of Kawachi-Class fast Battlecruisers, two Tone-Class CAs, an accelerated Agano-Class deployment, and additional destroyers. Quick, reasonably cheap carrier conversions are moved forward seeing all of the pre-war CVs/CVLs deploy by December 7th or at slightly earlier dates in 1942.

The Japan Naval Air Arm is changed so that everything is staked to the Zero Airframe with a specialization of the Zero into a Land-Based Interceptor as well as CV-Based Fighters. Research and production expansion is achieved by streamlining the air industry (cutting several models) while bringing forward second generation aircraft: Judy, Jill, etc… By great effort the IJNAF deploys nearly all new aircraft on December 7th.

RA 4.0 now brings his ‘vision’ to the IJN’s Land Component. He reorganizes the SNLF units into a Brigade-Sized offensive force and—knowing it will be a war of attrition—converts many Naval Guard into enhanced units with Coastal Defense artillery for a stronger defensive unit. Additional small units are added to the IJN’s Troops and support units better reflecting Yamamoto's foresight into base building, defense, and expansion needs.

The foresight of the Admiral paysoff during 1942 and early-1943 as new ships, aircraft, and ground units enter into the Japanese Order-of-Battle, however, the cost is steep. Though expanded and using modern aircraft many Japanese Naval Air units start with their experience lowered to reflect the dilution of the experienced pilots into new units. Supply and fuel reserves start at a much reduced state. The Japanese MUST take the DEI as fast as possible.

In a major change over the previous two versions of Reluctant Admiral, the 3.0 postulates more of Yamamoto’s influence upon the wartime Kaigun. First class destroyers are accelerated and emphasis is shifted to the AA Akizuki-Class at the expense of the more balanced Yugumo’s. Manpower is at a premium within the Fleet so Submarines, Escorts, and ASW forces all see a major retooling reflecting the Japanese quality over quantity belief. Yamamoto chooses the immediately useful projects, including 2nd-class destroyers, fast transports and coastal defense fleet, at the expense of large destroyers and subs offered by the stock, historical choice.

It should be noted that not all the changes are for the Japanese. The Allies see continued major changes in their starting locations, new air units, several ground units, a CLAA conversion for the Omaha-CL, a pair of additional CVLs, and options for nearly 10 CVEs. The added warships reflect a ‘stopgap’ counter to the increased Japanese strength found at war’s start.

How well can YOU do to use these new tools OR how well can you stop the Japanese Navy in its tracks as the Allies?

Designer's notes: 1. RA 4.0 is now fully compatible with Da Babe’s Modifications and may be used on the Extended Map with any other Babes feature. 2. Production is 'on' for this scenario 3. Garrison requirements have been raised in China as well as India to, hopefully, better reflect the political environment of the regions.

I chose the title of my AAR following my penchant for using excellent book titles. In a lot of ways Williford's Racing the Sunrise truly got this variant of RA running. His details of the American attempts to reinforce the Pacific bases prior to the Japanese attack is masterfully done. The accounts of how many of the Central Pacific and South Pacific bases weren't ready at the time of Dec 7th really kicked my thinking into high gear. The Allied player will now find Canton, the Line Islands, and several other locations starting in a thoroughly different manner.

This AAR will be reflecting one of two Campaigns I start this week. My long-running RA 2.0 game with Adm Nelson (Lew) was stopped in May 1943 so we could start a new game. Since I had sank nearly all of his CVs, he found this to be an excellent idea and I look forward to the challenge of playing him again. We both know each other which should produce a bit more drama within the campaign. The other RA Game I had running was 3.0 and was taken over by Soli Invictus (Roland). It had gotten to October 1942 but will not restart as well. With having a hard enough time of writing one AAR, I had to chose which campaign would receive my pen.

I've started Turn One work that will match about 80% for each of the two games with the remaining 20% swinging to the differing objectives of each new game.

Will hold off describing the GRAND DESIGN until tomorrow and allow Adm Nelson to comment now if he choses...

I am a real believer in House Rules. These are the ones we have been chatting about. Both Roland and Lew worked with these in our earlier campaigns. The biggest discussion right now is on Fighter Altitude usage and we have two proposals listed but haven't made a decision yet. Here are the HR:

1. 1st turn can have multiple port attacks, but ONLY from carriers. Manila and Singapore may have Fighters up and on CAP. Cannot transfer new Squadrons reflecting prior knowledge.

3. No strategic bombing (Oil, Resources, HI, LI, etc.) on EITHER side until July 1943

4. Manila subs can form TF based on a date/time stamp (use the last digit in a pre-determined e-mail). Since this may be the second port attack, the last digit in the time (hh:mm:ss) is used to determine how many subs can form TF (anywhere from 1-9 SS can be formed up).

10. Burma/NE India Monsoon Rules Offensive operations in jungle and mountain hexes on the Burmese front should be stopped from June 15th to November 1st for the Monsoon Season, allowing R&R, unit rotations, and give both players on the front a much less bloody (and much more interesting) experience. This would mean:

1. No shock or deliberate attacks in the jungle hexes within the designated area 2. Deliberate Attacks allowed in non-Jungle Terrain 3. Bombardment attacks are still allowed anywhere 4. Movement into friendly or empty hexes are still allowed 5. The number of aircraft allowed to fly from a base is reflected in its sizex10 (Sz-5 mean 50% can fly. The others may rest/train. 6. No offensive carrier operations in the Gulf of Bengal against Burma (other naval ops, including bombardment, are still allowed). Striking either Bengal, Northern India or Malaya from carriers in the Gulf is still allowed, of course.

Hexes would be corresponding to everything above the "Thailand" label within Burmese and Thailandese borders + the few jungle hexes going 3 or 4 hexes into "India" (Kohima, Ledo, Imphal area)

Thanks Sir. I've had a hard time keeping up my AARs with life being so crazy last year, however, I don't have the Hotel to demand 60-70+ hours a week so that helps a lot. While the boys are in school I've got every morning open so that should allow for a decent shot of regular and timely Postings regarding developments.

Am working on the Turn One right now and should be able to give it a 'test drive' in about an hour.

Have to ask that Lew and Roland stop reading from this point on. I need Roland (Soli Invictus) to stay away from the AAR due to similarities I will use to taking the DEI and initial steps elsewhere. Once the campaigns diverge then he can jump in.

When Turn One is done and sent I will detail the GRAND PLAN for this campaign!

Look forward to this AAR, as the RA scenario does seem to be a very interesting one.

One question on the HRs that has always bugged me is allowing a port attack other than PH to be a "surprise". What I mean is that the IJN CVs were out of sight of normal locations such as the Japanese home waters and traveled across the North Pacific avoiding any observation from commercial vessels or aircraft.

If Japanese CVs were spotted heading towards the the South China Sea, the jig would be up on the timing and location of a Japanese strike. There was an anticipation of the Japanese going to war very soon and the location of the IJN CVs was the last piece of the puzzle to determine where and when. I would submit any CV based strike in the South China Sea would negate the surprise as there is a high likelihood that they would have been spotted in the 7 days sail at cruising speed just to get to the South China Sea and the additional days to get within striking distance of Singapore. A Manila strike from the Phillipine Sea is Plausible, but think to hit Singapore and still have surprise is a stretch.

But I think that if the KB was detected sailing into the South China Sea, the Allies would have made changes to the dispostion of thier naval and air forces, to include sending out subs to track the CVs, sail combatant vessels out of ports, and adjust air group locations and dispositions. I can see the surprise on but handcuffing the Allies when an attack is obvious and imminent is a bit much.

I would submit that part of the reason PH was attractive was the secrecy in which the attack could be carried out, which is certainly not the case sailing over a week through waters with commercial and naval vessels and aircraft of all nations. (read the chances of being spotted very high, almost certain)

Given the changes allowed the IJN in this scenario, if you want to go into the South China Sea believe the Allies would have done more than sail one or two subs and put thier fighters on CAP.

Depends how far from Japanese held territory. Surprises happened at Bataan, Khota Bharu and of course PH. Carriers can be positioned within one hex of Bataan and 80 miles from Formosa, so it isn't a stretch to say that surprise could happen. Would the allies react to japanese ships moving that close to their own territory? Probably not. Same with just south of Khota. The allies didn't react because the invasion occurred so close to Patini, Japanese held. So carriers creeping south a couple of hexes from Khota could easily go unnoticed.

I agree that deep strikes with carriers (or fast TFs) would have been noticed and the allies reacted. But close to japanese sea lanes and/or held terrority? Not so sure.

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You can still call it a tactical surprise rather than a strategic surprise. " The japanese are going to attack - they wouldnt be silly enough to attack PH" " The Allies are agoing to invade France - only a fool woulf land at Normandy in this weather"

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A few thoughts

6. Aircraft Limitations (reflecting the Mod): -No A6M3 on CVEs -No A6M4 on any form of Carrier -A7M Sam and B7A-D Grace cannot be operated from CVEs Similar restrictions on the use of F4U on USN & RN CVE, I'm unsure this happened IRL

7. Four-Engine Bombers:

b. 4E bombers CANNOT bomb troops As this mostly affect the AFB I think its too restrictive, and you'll find ports and airbases smashed as they get all of the attention. I can see that B29 should be restricted from ground attacks

10. Burma/NE India Monsoon Rules Offensive operations in jungle and mountain hexes on the Burmese front should be stopped from June 15th to November 1st for the Monsoon Season, allowing R&R, unit rotations, and give both players on the front a much less bloody (and much more interesting) experience. This would mean:

1. No shock or deliberate attacks in the jungle hexes within the designated area 2. Deliberate Attacks allowed in non-Jungle Terrain Why Jungles only, Burma was turned into a lake in the 1945 monsoon and a mud pile the rest of the time. 3. Bombardment attacks are still allowed anywhere 4. Movement into friendly or empty hexes are still allowed 5. The number of aircraft allowed to fly from a base is reflected in its sizex10 (Sz-5 mean 50% can fly. The others may rest/train. 6. No offensive carrier operations in the Gulf of Bengal against Burma (other naval ops, including bombardment, are still allowed). Striking either Bengal, Northern India or Malaya from carriers in the Gulf is still allowed, of course.

Hexes would be corresponding to everything above the "Thailand" label within Burmese and Thailandese borders + the few jungle hexes going 3 or 4 hexes into "India" (Kohima, Ledo, Imphal area) I would make this anything east of the Ganges, partly to represent the lack of development of an infrastructure to support the armies and as above make it effect all hexes.

JeffK: I like the Corsair restriction. Seriously doubt if they could fly off of a CVE!

Allowing the B-17/B-24 to bomb troops might be feasible. What do people think about that? Is it too restrictive? Completely restricting the B-29 sounds appropriate at a minimum.

I need to look at my map for east of the Ganges but that is an EXCELLENT suggestion. Quite simple to follow.

Vicberg: Concur about the Allies responding pending on when and where CVs could be seen. To me this truly applies on the approaches of Singapore but not the Philippines. Think of the distance a TF could travel from sunset to sunrise + add the strike range of Vals and Kates and you could start in Formosa or WAY east of Manila Bay.

While I hope MichaelM can solve me own stupidity regarding setting the new game as Japanese Player and not PBEM, I thought I'd spend some time talking about the general plans for this Campaign.

Lew and I played the original RA through May 1943 and I had beaten him to a bloody pulp. He is highly aggressive and, once I figured that out, took full advantage of it. He lost 4 US and 2 Brit CV in 1942 along with LOTS of warships. The losses were pretty staggering. For those who know me, I am a HIGHLY aggressive Japanese player who will not stop until I have been forced to. It is quite normal for me to be planning offensives well into late-1942/early-1943. Sometimes as late as 1945--right MISTER CANOEREBEL??!! With this as a given, I wonder if he will shift his thinking at all? There is a great advantage to knowing your opponent for a second game. Course you may flip that statement around too...

Well...this is a far different Mod then when we started RA 2.0. With the drastic Japanese IJN pilot experience reductions, the LBA side of the IJN is not nearly so deadly. The CV pilots are still solid but nothing compared to how they were. This is a GOOD thing. The bottom line in RA has always been the basic question of plausibility. Expanding the IJN with only 2-3 years before the war would certainly create a strain and we have tried to reflect it with later editions of the Mod. Most of the air issues were decisively dealt with in 3.0 and I am not really excited to tryout the changes in 4.0 with ground units. The SNLF have been reorganized into Assault Brigades that can be broken down into -a/-b/-c Battalions. A full Brigade brings a strength of about 210 points to bear on a target. Important to note that not a single additional SNLF unit has been added there has simply been a new, stronger organization emplaced over the standard vanilla SNLF unit. A number of Naval Guard units have been replaced with Atoll Defense Units in Regimental or Battalion sizes. These units have Infantry as well as CD. They are designed to make atoll/island invasion very costly to the Allies. About a dozen heavy IJN AA Battalions have been added to provide a bit more teeth against Allied Airpower and the Air Fleet and Air Flotilla units have been allowed to upgrade into stronger units beginning in 1943. 4.0 doesn't add much in terms of ships (2 new CVE and Agano-CL) or air units (some small Daitai/Chutai) but there are changes to the Allied side.

As mentioned above, the Central Pacific bases have been reduced along the lines detailed in Racing the Sunrise. Fuel and supplies in the Continental US have been reduced by 50% to better and more accurately reflect the start of the war. On the bright side, the Pensacola Convoy is allowed an extra 10 days of time to actually make it to Manila. This adds 20,000 supply, 48 A-24 Divebombers, another full P-40 Pursuit Squadron, as well as 2 Artillery and 2 Base Force units. These additions could be some serious bad news for Japan. Add to that the Allied player actually gets the Pensacola and you have a nice addition. The Brits gain a Hurricane Squadron in Singapore and early war aircraft stocks and production have been augmented.

Taken as a whole this will be a bunch of fun for Lew and I to play. Considering our personalities it will probably be QUITE bloody!

In every campaign I play as the Japanese I always set some sort of massive goal for the war. In Lew and I's original game that was to take eastern India. That didn't work out too well though it did allow me to destroy the Allied Fleet. In my more recent RA 3.0 game I tried to take Hawaii. It didn't work out too well either. I THINK Hawaii is possible, now that I've taken one crack at it. In my upcoming game with Soli Invictus, I may attempt to see if I can actually succeed in that objective.

As long as it is an AUSSIE Fosters you are on! When they started bottling it in Canada I really thought it lost some of that great taste.

Taking Australia has long been a discussion point between Michael (NYGIANTS) and I. I am going to count on Lew's aggressiveness and land in NW Australia (standard moves), then invade Geraldton (forcing more commitment west), and finally NE Australia forcing units North. Once this has occurred I shall land north and south of Sydney and try to grab the city on the cheap and then fight until one side or the other wins...

I figure the final landing will comprise about 6+ ID and may stand a chance of real success. All will depend on Lew overcommitting to the threatened sectors before that...

To have the Infantry available for this I will attempt to rapidly take Singapore and Java and then threaten NW Aussieland and Perth with 6 ID.

JeffK: I like the Corsair restriction. Seriously doubt if they could fly off of a CVE!

A very bad guess, I'm afraid. In US service they were mostly kept on larger carriers until 1945, after which CVE use picked up - seems to have been more a question of USN v USMC squadron allocations after they got over the hump of using them on carriers at all. In RN service they were used from escort carriers from the beginning - yes, it's a large, heavy aircraft, but that's not necessarily a problem if the carrier's machinery (by which think deck strength, elevators, hangars, arrestor wires etc) can cope with it. I would guess ability of decks to take landing loads and ability of arrestor wires (where fitted at all) to stop the aircraft would be the significant restricting factors for the Japanese as far as aircraft handling, though I couldn't be certain about it.

The real operational problem with all these things comes when you attempt to load the aircraft - you can get, say, a Corsair or Grace off an escort carrier with a full fuel load, but probably not much more than that - unless you have a catapult. Certainly some USN and RN CVEs did - which, or when, I couldn't tell you exactly.

quote:

Allowing the B-17/B-24 to bomb troops might be feasible. What do people think about that? Is it too restrictive? Completely restricting the B-29 sounds appropriate at a minimum.

Well, B-24 particularly was used quite heavily for ground attack missions - not necessarily the 'go over there and bomb that squad' sort of missions that the game is restricted to, but they didn't just go around hitting airfields and ports. I think people sometimes get a little overfocused on treating bombing missions as killing people directly when, say, blowing up a division's ammunition supply is plenty disabling.

KFSGO: Thanks for the comments. Perhaps we can leave well enough alone on the CVEs, however, I do agree that their size made things quite difficult. Was just looking at my copy of the British Pacific Fleet and saw that they did use Corsairs...

The B-17/-24 Ground Attack issue does have serious weight to it. I think they be allowed to attack LCUs but they are just soooooooo damned effective. Anyone got any ideas here?

I would try something like B-17/B-24 ground attack at 12,000 or higher and only against hexes where there are no allied troops. No CAS missions.

THAT is interesting. Perhaps bump it up to 15,000 Ft and go with the same restriction regarding no Allied Troops? This is a pretty fair idea. Like it. I will bounce it off of my noble opponents.

Michael: YES I am Posting early this morning. CALL me! We had the excitement of a HUGE (like 20lb+) stray cat get into the House around 5am. The girls (3 of our cats) were screaming and hissing from on high. Our PUNY male (we cannot seem to have large Toms) was busy hiding. We had to chase this varmit all through the house to drive him out. By the time he was out the boys were up and awake and so life started at the Cochran House about 5:15am. Will wager on early bed for the boys tonight!

ORIGINAL: John 3rd Remember how close it was in our game. Soooooo close that you were down to just Brisbane and Sydney if I remember correctly.

I was down to Melbourne and Sydney. You had me bottled up and Oz seemed lost. You tried one attack at either Sydney or Melbourne, but the forts did the job and your losses were high. So you settled in for a protracted siege. Early in the siege, you had a battleship TF wander too closely to Melbourne and some Aussie strike aircraft sank one of your battlewagons. I was so worried about Oz that I couldn't even take comfort in that little victory.

The siege of Oz continued for well over a year. While the Japanese army was in Oz, though, the Allies eventually invaded Hokkaido and Sikhalin Island. It took a long time to pull that together. It was late enough in the war that you had finally begun to retire your Oz army. As I recall, some of these troops were on their way back to the inner perimter when the Allies hit Hokkaido, so you did have a decent reserve not too far away.

This is how I expect things to develop with the Opening Phases of the War:

Philippines: 48th ID, 2nd ID, and 65th Brigade---Slow campaign that will simply work to bottle the Allied troops into Bataan and slowly wear them down.

Malaya: 18th ID, Imperial Guards, 38th ID, 21st ID, 5th ID and remaining Armor---QUICK Campaign to have Singers by mid-January. All troops to land initially at Singora with the 38th (after Hong Kong) to land at Mersing.

Sumatra: 4th ID and 2 Tank Regiments for a quick conquest of Palembang and the remainder of the Island. I will land at Palembang no later then December 15th. As soons as Palembang falls the 4th ID will then bounce Java by landing at Merak by January 1st.

Darwin: Smaller Infantry units will blast the hole from Babeldoap through Ternate--Ambon with plans to land the 33rd ID at Koepang by December 25th. The 33rd plus 2 Brigades will land west of Darwin in early-January.

South Pacific: The South Seas Force and Imperial Guards Brigade (bought on Turn One and sent by Warp Speed Convoy to Truk) will take Rabaul by December 15th, grab Luganville and Noumea by mid-January, and set-up the Eastern Pincer of the Aussie Invasion. I've already grabbed 14th Army plus 4 large Artillery units and sent them this direction for added weight early on.

Central Pacific: Will take my normal Wake and Midway by using one of my new SNLF Assault Brigades.

Aleutians: Normal moves to quickly grab a defensive line from the mid-Aleutians (perhaps as far as Unmak) west. Small units used for this.

My Infantry Division count is coming up short. Who did I miss?

All political points go to buying out Inf Div from China and Manchuria. Should be able to buy at least 3 before I land in SE Australia. ALL of them will be sent for the Eastern Assault...

ORIGINAL: John 3rd Remember how close it was in our game. Soooooo close that you were down to just Brisbane and Sydney if I remember correctly.

I was down to Melbourne and Sydney. You had me bottled up and Oz seemed lost. You tried one attack at either Sydney or Melbourne, but the forts did the job and your losses were high. So you settled in for a protracted siege. Early in the siege, you had a battleship TF wander too closely to Melbourne and some Aussie strike aircraft sank one of your battlewagons. I was so worried about Oz that I couldn't even take comfort in that little victory.

The siege of Oz continued for well over a year. While the Japanese army was in Oz, though, the Allies eventually invaded Hokkaido and Sikhalin Island. It took a long time to pull that together. It was late enough in the war that you had finally begun to retire your Oz army. As I recall, some of these troops were on their way back to the inner perimter when the Allies hit Hokkaido, so you did have a decent reserve not too far away.

How's that for memories?

A fond smile just broke across my face Dan. What a fight that was! Yes...I do remember losing that BB. Ohhhhhhhh the pain and horror!

I took one shot at Sydney and immediately saw that it was impossible. Started a phased withdrawal and those troops lived to fight another day. That damned invasion of yours will NEVER be forgotten! I sank 200+ ships and you...still...kept...on...coming. Felt like Apollo Creed fighting Rocky Balboa. GREAT times!